SC to examine Google's plea against CCI's penalty of Rs 1.337 crore

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine an appeal by Google against the Rs 1,337.76 crore penalty imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged anti-competitive practices. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has already declined to stay fine.

Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, representing Google, spoke of the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. He said the CCI passed extraordinary directions and the compliance date has been fixed as January 19, though the appeal was filed in December.

He asked the case be listed for Friday, January 12. The bench agreed to keep the case on Monday.

The CCI passed the order in October on abuse of dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem case and asked the tech giant to deposit 10% of the fine amount. Google filed an appeal in December 2022 and the NCLAT said it did not find any urgency to pass an interim order because Google showed no urgency in filing the appeal. "Therefore Google could not be allowed to press for interim relief."

The CCI also imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on the company for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.

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